In the spring of 1929 a gangling, 16-year-old kid, with a Daily Racing Form bulging out of his coat pocket, ambled around the grounds at New England's fashionable St. Paul's School, taking bets on the Kentucky Derby. He was Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt Jr., whose father had gone down with the Lusitania. His mother, twice remarried, owned a fine stable of thoroughbreds, and young Alfred, heir to some $20,000,000, was champing at the bit for the day when he could spend all his time among horses.
It took ten years for young Alfred to get the...
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